Bradshaw Rock Art

San rock paintings, scattered over the range of southern Africa, are considered by many to be the very earliest examples of representational art. There are as many as 15,000 known rock art sites, created over the course of thousands of years up until the nineteenth century. There are possibly just as many still awaiting discovery. Taking as his starting point the magnificent Linton panel in the Iziko-South African Museum in Cape Town, J. D. Lewis-Williams examines the artistic and cultural significance of rock art and how this art sheds light on how San image-makers conceived their world. It also details the European encounter with rock art as well as the contentious European interaction with the artists’ descendants, the contemporary San people.

"Those Lucky enough to encounter a Bradshaw rock painting often describe the moments powerful enough to unfold magical effects that touch and hold the observer for a lifetime" (Reto Weiler). Hauntingly beautiful, world heritage status rock art images from the Kimberley intrigues its origins and the identity of its artists. Despite decades of independent research by dedicated 'Kimberley' based individuals, and the recent plethora of funded research it has resisted all efforts to decipher this very early Bradshaw Period of rock art. Radiometric dating techniques have failed to produce conclusive dates of its origins or age. In the present study, superimposition of the five different evolutionary styles produces an ordinal time line that was then calibrated by absolute dates from biological markers. The research for this book revealed a Pleistocene floodplain culture that may have thrived with boabs on the shore from around 50-60 kya, while visiting the rocky plateau for religious and artistic pursuits. Cultural evolution was punctuated by the dramatic tidal recessions of the Pleistocene, and terminated by the 120 -140 metre inundation that marked the end of the Pleistocene and the creation of the present Kimberley coastline.

For many people the term rock art is full of mystery. Yet it refers to wh`t may be the oldest form of human artistic endeavor. Depictions and symbols on rock surfaces exist on all continents and from all eras. Dating back perhaps more than forty thousand years, rock paintings and engravings can be found from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America, from the caves of southern France to the des$rts of the American Southwest. Ranging from simple etchings on isolated stones to elaborate scenes in celebrated prehistoric caves, from splendid animal and human figures to sexual, religious, and geometrical forms, millions of images throughout the world testify to the worldviews of traditional peoples, many of them long vanished. World Rock Art discusses the discovery of rock art by the West, profiles important sites, explains how the art was made, and considers how it can be dated. It then explores the meanings of these often enigmatic images and discusses their significance today. A final chapter reviews initiatives underway to preserve this remarkable heritage. Book jacket.

This is a photographic examination of the many and varied stylistic variations apparent in the Bradshaw Rock Art. It provides and insight into the spatial distribution of the 4 main stylistic variations determined through an archaeological appraisal.

Contains more than two hundred photographs of Africa's rock art, coupled with historical and interpretive analyses, compiled to raise public awareness of the variety, importance, and frailty of these works.

A follow-up to Tim Bowden's Penelope Goes West, this time covering the intriguing adventures of Tim, Ros, Penelope (the car) and The Manor (the caravan) as they travel across the grandeur and spectacle of Broome, the Kimberleys and various points south and west. Bowden's fascination with rarely seen Aboriginal rock art is a major theme in his continuing love affair with Australia. On their journey Tim and wife, Ros, explore the Kimberley by land and sea, where dramatic 12-metre tides guard coastal locations unchanged by time - still as 17th-century buccaneer William Dampier first described them. For three months, Tim and Ros and their trusty four-wheel-drive, Penelope, travelled from the improbably sculptured Bungle Bungles to the Pilbara and the wildflower-filled Mid West.